Hello all!
I'd like to preface this by saying thank you for taking the time to read this...I wish I could be more brief but it will be tough to cover everything.
I moved into a home about 2 months ago and as a secondary source of heat there is a Quadrafire 1200i pellet insert. I knew nothing about pellet stoves prior to this, and the limited knowledge I have now was acquired from this awesome site and Google in general.
Before turning the stove on, I did have someone come out to inspect it, and he determined the stove was well maintained and it did fire up so we basically left it at that and I figured everything was good to go. However, the more I use it and the more I learn about it, things don't seem "quite right."
More often than not when the thermostat kicks the stove on, it will drop pellets, the igniter will glow red and a few pellets might catch and spark for a few minutes but then eventually the exhaust will just kick off and the stove is silent...meanwhile the unit is still red and calling for heat. So at that point I push the reset button...and usually on this second try the pellets will ignite, produce flame, the thermocouple will read 200 and the auger will continue dropping pellets.
All seems fine after that...however after that first big bunch of pellets burns down...the stove continues to regularly drop pellets but the flames are very low in the fire pot. I made sure the hopper feeder thing is wide open and the unit is set to high. With these settings I understand I should be getting on average 4-6" flames above the pot. This is nowhere near the case. I have noticed that the glass on the door gets brown sooty streaks fairly quickly..so doing some research I wondered if the gasket around the door is not making a good seal. There are indeed frayed areas and the rope itself is very impacted. So I ordered a new gasket and began cleaning out the old cement in preparation for the new gasket. However while doing this I noticed the smaller gaskets around the individual glass panes held under the brackets around the border..and that on each pane the gasket goes around the left and right sides, as well as on the bottom, but NOT on the top.
So here we are. My questions are, should there be a gasket going around the entire inside of each individual pane? Because if so I'll obviously need to order that before I continue with the main door gasket. Am I on the right track to solving the trouble igniting/burning and low flame issue? Or should I be looking elsewhere? I have checked the fire pot ash dump for a good seal, and have cleaned out the exhaust path and trap door just after the exhaust blower. One final note, the guy who had inspected the unit believed the pellet bags that the previous owner had left were approx 4 years old based on the color of packaging. They've been sitting covered on a skid in the garage. So could the old pellets also be an issue?
Again, sorry this is so lengthy and my knowledge being limited I realize these could be silly questions. But I would appreciate any help/advice you could provide. I love the look of this stove and want to get it up and running right before the cold temps really hit!
I'd like to preface this by saying thank you for taking the time to read this...I wish I could be more brief but it will be tough to cover everything.
I moved into a home about 2 months ago and as a secondary source of heat there is a Quadrafire 1200i pellet insert. I knew nothing about pellet stoves prior to this, and the limited knowledge I have now was acquired from this awesome site and Google in general.
Before turning the stove on, I did have someone come out to inspect it, and he determined the stove was well maintained and it did fire up so we basically left it at that and I figured everything was good to go. However, the more I use it and the more I learn about it, things don't seem "quite right."
More often than not when the thermostat kicks the stove on, it will drop pellets, the igniter will glow red and a few pellets might catch and spark for a few minutes but then eventually the exhaust will just kick off and the stove is silent...meanwhile the unit is still red and calling for heat. So at that point I push the reset button...and usually on this second try the pellets will ignite, produce flame, the thermocouple will read 200 and the auger will continue dropping pellets.
All seems fine after that...however after that first big bunch of pellets burns down...the stove continues to regularly drop pellets but the flames are very low in the fire pot. I made sure the hopper feeder thing is wide open and the unit is set to high. With these settings I understand I should be getting on average 4-6" flames above the pot. This is nowhere near the case. I have noticed that the glass on the door gets brown sooty streaks fairly quickly..so doing some research I wondered if the gasket around the door is not making a good seal. There are indeed frayed areas and the rope itself is very impacted. So I ordered a new gasket and began cleaning out the old cement in preparation for the new gasket. However while doing this I noticed the smaller gaskets around the individual glass panes held under the brackets around the border..and that on each pane the gasket goes around the left and right sides, as well as on the bottom, but NOT on the top.
So here we are. My questions are, should there be a gasket going around the entire inside of each individual pane? Because if so I'll obviously need to order that before I continue with the main door gasket. Am I on the right track to solving the trouble igniting/burning and low flame issue? Or should I be looking elsewhere? I have checked the fire pot ash dump for a good seal, and have cleaned out the exhaust path and trap door just after the exhaust blower. One final note, the guy who had inspected the unit believed the pellet bags that the previous owner had left were approx 4 years old based on the color of packaging. They've been sitting covered on a skid in the garage. So could the old pellets also be an issue?
Again, sorry this is so lengthy and my knowledge being limited I realize these could be silly questions. But I would appreciate any help/advice you could provide. I love the look of this stove and want to get it up and running right before the cold temps really hit!
